SeanO

Positives, New manager, new players look good in pre season, no Heskey, Hutton and Warnock seemingly out of the picture. Negatives, We already have a taster of injuries, how many more can this small squad take?, as said small squad, playing a newly promoted team away. It will be a difficult game and I can't get the visions of Newcastle away out of my mind, I just hope those players who were playing that day have. Hope for at least a draw maybe 1-1 but who knows? Under PL it seems we will at least try to win and for that I'm already thankful!

I really hope your right LSV but with this squad as it is 14 wins would be a great return and PL would have done miracles IMO. Our defence is frankly a joke and will leak goals unless money is spent, the midfield is a strange one we have a lot of players but if you asked 10 fans you would probably get 10 different line ups as none of them stand out. As for the front line, well we all saw what happened last season without Bent lose him again and we are going to be in big trouble. Still time for RL to dig deep, I honestly think without more investment we will struggle but oddly enough after the sacking of Mclueless I really don't care as in Lambert "I trust"

erm, isn't that what happens on a forum? Posters can debate/argue/question etc everything and anything to with the chosen subject in this case, Aston Villa. My guess is because posters are interested in what we are about to see rather than knocking PL. personally I'm excited although I have that nagging feeling that we are going to cop more than our fair share of hammering this season.

It difficult to disagree in fact from what I have seen we are going to be lucky to win 7 games with this squad and playing with such a narrow midfield. I'm really looking forward to watching us this season after the abomination of the last one but if you told me we had strengthened the team over the summer I would find it hard to agree at this point. That said I like the look of all the new players but just 4 to date is nowhere near what is required to give this club a boost that we so obviously need. Come on RL give PL the money to improve the team, if PL's idea of football is a narrow midfield then you better let him spend big on fullbacks because they are going to have their work cut out.

It's all about the money. We are lacking all over the pitch if we compare ourselves to the top 5 clubs maybe even top 8 but we hold up well against the rest. To even push for the awful Europa Cup we need (imo) an decent forward, defensive midfielder and a fast quality LB. None of these of the right calibre will be cheap and nothing I have heard or read leads me to believe RL is going to spend big. The midfield will sort itself out, personally I'm more concerned about a leaky defence and a none scoring forward line. yes I know the midfield has a big say in both but you can't expect to compete with the big guns if you can't spend not matter how good Paul Lambert is. All that said I don't really care any more, I don't blame RL or anyone at VP. Those in charge of the game have allowed it to become a money game and we haven't faired too badly, better than most but as much as we love Villa we are not a big club compared to the ManU and ManC's etc we don't have either the turnover or owners willing to spend whatever it takes to succeed. I support Villa wherever we finish as long as the team give 100% I can ask no more although Mcshit almost made me question why last season, even with this average squad I'm really looking forward to this season.

Mattyp I love your optimism over our net spend but it's not going to happen mate. What have we spent so far? 6-7mm (I have taken off the money for Collins), I honestly don't think we will see any more new faces unless someone is sold. Maybe that report from a few months back about us having 8m to spend was correct, feels like it to me. This doesn't mean I think we will struggle, I don't but neither do I think we will win a trophy which is what I find most frustrating about the modern (money)game.

Well Mclueless was a dream, a **** horrible nightmare!

:oops: I can't believe you mean that Paul, Heskey was absolute rubbish no matter who he partnered. I'm so pleased that I will never feel the disappointment of seeing him on a team sheet for Villa again, almost as much as not ever having "he who can't be named" picking the team! Thinking about it no Mcshite & co, no Heskey, no Collins it's shaping up very nicely. Just Hutton, Warnock and Dunne to go would make it a perfect summer.

If you play a high line then having pace can be an invaluable asset, and even then a fast defender will almost always lose a race against a fast striker because the defender will have to turn around and get up to full speed from a standing start against the striker who is already running. I dont think we will play a high line so its a purely academic debate anyway. Totally agree, if you play a high line then you better have pace to burn otherwise you will get caught out. With the pace of forwards today this would be a mistake imo to play this way, play to your strength not the opposition's. This doesn't mean sitting on the edge of our box either but again imo to play this way properly the centre backs have to be comfortable on the ball and able to pass/move the ball. Coming from Dutch football I would expect RV to be that type of player, Dunne has also always struck me as a ball playing CB sometimes maybe that will work however with both Clarke and Baker also pushing for the 1st team I'm really hopeful of at last seeing the back of the Dunne/Collins crap. FWIW I still think we need to replace Given, brilliant shot stopper but doesn't command his area hence a big weakness from set pieces and corners. Big WELCOME from me to Ronny Vlaar

Lets be honest most of us hoped he would burst onto the scene and be our Gerrard and it didn't happen. He has great potential and of all the young players at the club he looks to me to be the one with the best chance of really making it big but he's still learning and we will have to be patient while he gets up to the pace of the Premier League. When he does we will have a great player who we will all be proud of, unlike his brother!

It's all about opinions mate, I don't fully agree with yours about the need for another fullback over centre half (if that's your point). Also what make you think we will play without wingers? N'zogbia, Holman have featured in all pre season games so far. Personally I believe we will use the width of VP pitch. I agree with your 2nd point, in fact it would be difficult to argue against it after all one of the best player to pull a Villa shirt on during my time following Villa was from lower leagues David Platt. It's great to know PL is hunting around as long as he doesn't just go for these type of players as I believe we need a mixture of the experience and untried.

That is probably why we according to the papers only have offered 3.5 mill. I am sure we will get the priorities also. But I think it is nice to buy some young and talented players to our RB and LB positions. I don't think we spend our entire budget on these players, so there will be more to come. Yeah I read the reports DeepDish and at 3.5m for a club of our size this shouldn't be an issue, However I also read that Ipswich wanted 6m this imo is too much. Unless we manage to get rid of one or two of the (hopefully more) I doubt we will be freely buying players due to the wages. Don't get me wrong I have no complaints about Villa or PL, Like most of us I hated the season with "he who can't be named" in charge. This season is going to be much much better and I can't wait.

Not sure about this one, what message is it sending out if true? We are after young untried players? At the right price great but 6m isn't the right price. We are scouting the lower leagues as we have no money? I don't believe this but some will and the mud has stuck. IMO a LB isn't the top priority, a centre back or 2 is, however PL will get my backing as at least we are being linked to players even if in the case of this player he only has 1 season of lower league football to his name. Oh and it's piss funny reading the Ipswich Town fans over reaction to this and PL, lol

I really really hope not. I accept that we won't be able to shift the entire back 4 but we cannot start with those two as our centre-back pairing next season. Our defence won't stop being poor until they're out of it. I feel the same and tbh with both Bent and Gabby injured it worries me what if it were to happen again like last season. Shite defence and a keeper who will not come out for crosses, a midfield who don't keep possession and a none scoring forward line. The players who have been signed look "ok" but nothing special, however I appreciate we are only just getting into pre season. I believe the real key to this coming season is the signing of Vlaar, sign him and we once again have a leader on the pitch, keep Collins and co and well we all saw what happened last season it will just continue. We all want to see men who will give their all for Villa, this player looks to me to be one of those and if so others will follow. I just hope that someone at Villa contact Feyenoord to let them know we want him and will pay the money.

Please let this happen although I dislike this hoof ball player I will save the real cheers for Warnock and Hutton departures. If only the other lump Dunne could go as well it would be a perfect summer, useless tosser the lot. Also if Given keeps playing like Dracula he can **** off as well however that's just my opinion and it's Paul Lamberts that counts.

8) Now that's what football should be about, passion. I have never had "another" team or even the slightest soft spot for another club but after watching that I'm going to start looking at Feyenoord games with interest. Come on! In Sweden where I live, the players always celebrates with the fans after a win. Sometimes they dive, sometimes they do the "wave". This is home or away. Away players always walk over to the fans and thank them for the support. 2300 villasupporters went to Burton in a friendly to support the team. I think they were worth more then a littel clap from the middle. Yes, I would like to see some passion like Feyenoord from the Villa-players and the fans will really be the 12 man. I agree the pathetic reluctant clap from 1/2 a pitch away was shit to watch. I wouldn't expect that type of response (Feyenoord players and fans) after beating a non league team but that effort was piss weak by the Villa players on Saturday.

Yes, they're a wonderful bunch when they're not firebombing police, hurling anti-semitic slurs or beating opposition fans to death. Hahaha, If I had of wanted that shit I would have gone for the other lot of scum down the road at St Andrews, shame the passion shown in the video looked great.

8) Now that's what football should be about, passion. I have never had "another" team or even the slightest soft spot for another club but after watching that I'm going to start looking at Feyenoord games with interest. Come on!

Sid, you almost got me there V-R then I to recalled being happy about his return to VP, although by then it was to a team on the decline. Oh what should have been!

Well bugga me!! Are Aston Villa finally are looking outside the Premier League? if so it's about time as there is some real talent out there. I know nothing about this player but one of the many things we were missing last season was players that could pass the ball to each other and keep possession. From those videos he can do that but Lambert will have to sign a few more who can do this otherwise he will never get it back ;-) If this is true it looks like PL has quickly realised what we were all banging on about, you can only get so far with kick and rush counter football hopefully PL will buy players who want to keep possession and not panic and hoof it forward to a 50/50 (at best) all the time. Some of our stats for last season were awful.

Alan Hutton.................Bwawawawawa Too many to name just one Luton, honestly I still love the teams of 77 and 81 so to all of those players add the likes of God, Platt, Yorke, Deano, Young, Milner, Merson plus many other and I'd find it hard to pick just one that we signed however the most exciting Villa player that I ever saw was one of our own Brian Little. I'll never forget that night against QPR in the LC semi or that 119th minute against Everton at the 3rd attempt in 77, nor will I forget that night at VP against Liverpool although they were all magnificent that night. Also for me it's no surprise that he managed the last Villa team to win something and play entertaining football.

Welbeck, **** I had an email about this player, sorry if you have heard it but remember I'm out in Australia. Little known fact but Danny Welbeck's father is apparently a bomb disposal expert in Iraq and his name is Stan.

Is there anything about Aston Villa you like? I have yet to read a positive post off you, why are you so down on everything surely your life can't be that bad?

Caught it a couple of months back and so I have cancelled my AVTV subscription, TBH I didn't hardly ever log on anyway although that could have had more to do with he who can't be mentioned than anything else.

I honestly laugh at some of the absolute bollocks written about football shirts, you sound like friggin woman whinging and yes, your belly does look big in the shirt hahaha If it's C&B and has Aston Villa then it's fine by me, that said I don't buy the shirts although I still have a 77 LC shirt........those were the days. Bigger things to give a **** about.